enotes a strong hale constitution of body. Anciently it signified a full fleathy corpulent state, such as the athlete endeavoured to arrive at. The athletic habit is esteemed the highest pitch of health: yet it is dangerous, and the next door to disease; since, when the body is no longer capable of being improved, the next alteration must be for the worse. The chief object of the athletic diet, was to obtain a firm, bulky, weighty body; by force of which, more than art and agility, they frequently overpowered their antagonist: hence they fed altogether on dry, solid, and viscous meats. In the earlier days, their chief food was dry figs and cheese, which was called arida saginatio, ἑπαρ τεῦθος, and ἀναγινώσκων καθάπαυσις. Oribasius, or, as others lay, Pythagoras, first brought this into disuse, and substituted flesh in lieu thereof. They had a peculiar bread called κολατία: They exercised, ate, and drank, without ceasing: they were not allowed to leave off eating when satiated; but were obliged to cram on till they could hold no more; by which means they at length acquired a degree of voracity which to us seems incredible, and a strength proportional. Witness what Paulanias relates of the four celebrated athletes, Polydamus the Thessalian, Milo the Crotonian, Theagenes the Thasian, and Euthymus the Locrian: The second is said to have carried a bull on his back a considerable way, then to have knocked him down with a blow of his fist, and lastly, as some add, devoured him at a meal.